I’m quite excited about seeing this when it eventually makes it’s way to Lunar viewscreens (America gets it on 19th September). Apparently it’s about the first days of prohibition in and around Atlantic City and has what looks to be a great cast: Steve Buscemi, Michael Pitt, Tommy from Snatch as Al Capone and our very own Kelly MacDonald. And one of the episodes is directed by some guy called Martin Scorsese. Should be a real hoot.
via YouTube
Who doesn’t like Conan the Barbarian? You don’t?! Okay then, I will fight you later. In the mean time cast your soon to be blackened eye over this musical version of the 1982 cult classic.
Actually now that I think about it if Conan were to sing at you, his vocal chords would probably be so muscular he’d sing your head right off your puny little shoulders.
I loved the first Free Willy movie as a kid. Boy meets whale, boy frees whale, boy discovers self = lovely! Yet the movie’s nice eco message was not fully appreciated by its producers, who thought it was ok to make a film about a poorly treated captive whale by filming a poorly treated captive whale and then had to fork out millions in PR money to try free the poor thing, which by now was too ill to cope in the wild.
And the ill-thought-out-ness didn’t stop there…
Free Willy: The Animated Series - where Jesse rides Willy to the ocean bed to fight robot men! Just like in the film! Oh and Willy can talk! Just like in the film!
R.U.B.B.I.S.H
Old news nobody! A special episode of the most recent Turtles cartoon called ‘Turtles Forever’ came out last year or sometime, and over christmas I got a chance to watch it, and I recommend it to all. Funny stuff wherein the attitude-ridden new Turtles meet the cringe-worthy 80’s Turtles, and then they all meet the original bad-ass Turtles from the original comic series. Oh how I laughed.
Screw those philosophical plants in my last post! Depressing bastards. This one is purely for me. My favourite cartoon when i was growing up was the Pink Panther, particularly the DePatie/Freleng golden era. I call it golden, to most it may have appeared yellow or even light brown. I watch those cartoons now and I am reminded of the smell of toast with melted butter. YeAH. Most people I speak to remember the Pink Panther (of course) but forget the extra cartoons they made that ended up filling the ’Pink Panther Show’ (which was an excuse to re-run previous Panther cartoons) including the Tijuana Toads and Crazylegs Crane. My favourite additional cartoon was The Ant and the Aardvark. I love it all, from the backgrounds down to the zoidberg-ian voice of the Aardvark…
The last remake of PP which I was excited about back in 1993 had him talking (with the voice of Max Headroom, no less) and I remember being deeply dissapointed about it, but this is reviving The Ant and the Aardvark! Once again people will know what the hell I’m talking about!! Yeah! Go me!
Americans must tell me how it goes, as it premieres today (sun 7th) on cartoon network
I’m taking this one as a personal win.
(Also via Cartoon Brew. Good site that.)
This is old news for all you die-hard doctor fans, but I just caught up with this (via an old article in Guardian). Pretty cool methinks. These are the brainchild of the talented and alliterative Garrett Gilchrist of Orange Cow Productions who invites budding fanimators to help out with the project, see HERE if you want to have a go.
But if fans can do this for no money then why not BBC, eh?
Well they did apparently in 2006 for DVD release of The Invasion (commissioned from Cosgrove Hall, home to Danger Mouse and Duckula), but now say it’s too expensive to make any more. Well Auntie Beebee, I don’t believe it- I reckon you could get a fair few for the price of two pints and a packet of crisps….
I’m too busy trying to dress like a normal human being so that I don’t get sacked or beaten, but if I could, I would dress like internets’ favourite ‘Tron guy’…
Tron 2 is on it’s way people. Dress accordingly.
…Da duh da
I don’t know what it is… but i think the new A-Team film may be the greatest thing ever. As long as that isn’t one of them Hum-vee’s in the smokey background there.
OK, so you’ve heard this before but you’re bound to hear it again. And again. And again.
This guy likes the Wilhelm Scream so much he appears to be wearing the sartorial equivalent.
I’ll admit I love me a bit of Desert Island Discs now and again. It’s strangely comforting despite the premise (stranded — alone —- forever) which is pretty alarming when you think about it. David Mitchell was on the other week-
So for he, me and middle class neurotics everywhere here is David Mitchell’s ultimate desert island disc as sung by a frog with a banjo- and Debbie Harry on this occasion. I hope this makes up for all my recent rantings.
And as Rosscoe has just reminded me of the true awesomeness of Vincent Price- and this came up in related videos…
Yes, we may have forgotten this but art, and cinema, can be important and beautiful and life-affirming. Bill Douglas knew this.
I am ashamed to say I have never seen the autobiographical Childhood trilogy for which he is famous, despite the fact he grew up just outside Edinburgh, the nexus of my existence. But I am very proud to be the owner of the new DVD of Comrades, which until now - well officially tomorrow (BFI sent mine early, woo hoo)- it was almost impossible to get hold of by all accounts… ad a six week run in London only and then practically disappeared.
Released during the Thatcher era (go figure), the film is based on the Tolpuddle Martyrs of the early 19th century, sent to Australia for daring to be involved in a ‘Friendly Society’ (basically a trade union) and still celebrated today. But far from being a factual documentary, what makes it stand out are the moments imaginative experimentation, of ‘fantastickal reverie’. (It reminds me a wee bit of one of my favourite novels, maybe the Great American Novel, Mason and Dixon by Thomas Pynchon which is based on factual events from late 18th century history but connecting the gaps are flights of imagination from talking dogs to alien abduction.)
Yesterday a bit of browsing in Waterstones (other bookshops are available) led me to find a book of ‘Dream of the Rarebit Fiend’ strips by Winsor McCay, which featured daily in New York Evening Telegram from 1904 to 1911, essentially each strip represents a strange and fantastic dream brought on by the hallucinogenic properties of cheese. The illustration is just stunning, and the ideas are great. He also wrote Little Nemo in Slumberland aimed at kids, which apparently had an influence on Sandman. It just amazes me how newspaper comic strips seemed to reach their artistic peak virtually from the word ‘go’ (although I ’spose cartoons and illustrations had been around much much longer). Another serious love of mine is George Herriman and his Krazy Kat strips created in 1913, but more on him in a future post…
OK- it’s 40 years today since Apollo 11 took off for the moon landing. Having ‘on the moon’ in our name, and a musical astronaut as a mascot we might as well milk this baby for all it’s worth. Which potentially means 8 days of moon related lunacy…
The Apollo 10 mission was essentially a sort of trial run which took place in May 1969, orbiting the moon within about 8 miles of its surface. Delightfully, the main command capsule was given the All-American call sign ‘Charlie Brown’ and the lunar module, ‘Snoopy’; the Peanuts characters becoming semi-official mascots to drum up support. Charlie’s namesake now resides at Science Museum, London.
